Cruising donkeys

After a quiet night we started looking for somewhere we could leave the boat and go shopping, provisions getting a little low. We decided on a place called Bagnoli as it appeared flat and there was a Carrefour fairly close. Where we were would have meant a steep uphill climb in the wrong direction before turning to reach supermarket. I almost wish we had done the climb, Bagnoli is not a pretty place, it was all a bit desperate, and not somewhere I would have wanted to venture into at night, the water was still a dodgy green and the ‘grey’ water runoff was on the beach but at least we got the shopping done even if it did seem to take ages. We then headed further west along coast looking for turquoise water. We failed but did find Port Miseno a beautifully sheltered natural harbour that had lots of anchoring space. The water was clear, you could see the bottom, just the wrong colour we still got in, we had to to cool off but made a point of not swallowing any. The next day Saturday was a little more windy so we decided to stay where we were but it got a bit ridiculous the locals turned up in fierce most of them seemed to just take their boats off the permanent moorings further in and come out an anchor up. They were swimming and seemed unconcerned about their kids swimming. We had a gorgeous meal at Capo Blu in Miseno, due our lack of Italian it was all a bit of a surprise but we had 5 separate mini starters and a main of ‘Amerjack’ fish (Google’s translation) we said no to pasta course though they did have GF pasta. It really was delicious.
Sunday rather than experience a repeat we headed out to the Flegree Islands we took a cruise around Procida and Vivara, a small nature reserve joined by a pedestrian bridge to Procida, before anchoring for the remainder of the day in a bay on the NW coast just outside the Marine Park by the islands Cemetery. We experienced another first for us when the ‘bar Del mare’ came into the bay selling drinks and ice creams, very enterprising.
We were going to stay the night but the building swell persuaded us to return to Port Misero. That has got to have been one of the bumpiest and most unpleasant crossings we have done and all the swell was the result of idiot boats going at breakneck regardless of who and how close they were passing. The pilot book mentioned Italian Macho Man syndrome and boy was it out in force.
We returned to Procida on Monday same bay and had a walk around visiting Corricella and the main port before spending the night anchored to the north of the port much smoother once ferries stopped.Read more